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John Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth "Ken" Galbraith, OC (October 15, 1908 – April 29, 2006) was a Canadian and, later, American economist, public official, and diplomat, and a leading proponent of 20th-century American liberalism. His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through the 2000s, during which time Galbraith fulfilled the role of public intellectual. As an economist, he was a Keynesian and an institutionalist. Galbraith was a long-time Harvard faculty member and stayed with Harvard University for half a century as a professor of economics. He was a prolific author and wrote four dozen books, including several novels, and published more than a thousand articles and essays on various subjects. Among his most famous works was a popular trilogy on economics, American Capitalism (1952), The Affluent Society (1958), and The New Industrial State (1967). Galbraith was active in Democratic Party politics, serving in the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson. He served as United States Ambassador to India under the Kennedy administration. His prodigious literary output and outspokenness made him, arguably, "the best-known economist in the world" during his lifetime. Galbraith was one of few recipients both of the Medal of Freedom (1946) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2000) for his public service and contribution to science. The government of France made him a Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur. Tossup Questions # In one book, this thinker argued in sections such as "The Technostructure" and "A Digression on Socialism" that the United States was not a fully free-enterprise based economy and that large corporations were supplanting supply and demand through planning and the use of advertisement. This author of The New Industrial State served as John F. Kennedy's ambassador to India and also wrote a book originally titled Why the Poor are Poor in which he critiqued the use of GDP to measure prosperity and advocated investment in public schools and the "New Class" in order to create the title state. For 10 points, name this author of The Affluent Society. # In one work, this economist cited trade unions and citizens' organizations as "countervailing powers" to the advantages of big business. Another of this man's works claims that shareholders are losing control of companies to upper-level "technostructures" that do not seek to maximize profit. That work argues that supply and demand have taken a backseat to advertising and vertical integration for corporations. Another of this man's works, which explores the economic disparity between the private and public, uses the term "conventional wisdom." For 10 points, name this author of The New Industrial State and The Affluent Society. # This thinker wrote a work about the tension between "managerialism" and "socialism" and in another book discusses the idea of "countervailing power," arguing organized labor and the federal government will replace free market competition as the primary check on corporate power. This economist asserted that large companies have made perfect competition impossible because the rules of supply and demand have been undermined by the use of advertising in his book The New Industrial State. His best-known work outlines the "dependence effect" and discusses the emergence of the private sector in America after World War II. For 10 points, name this economist who coined the term "conventional wisdom" in The Affluent Society. # One work by this author claims that companies that control two-thirds of output act to minimize risk rather than maximize profit, since they are controlled not by their shareholders, but by technostructure. That work tracks how large corporations use futures to minimize the volatility of raw materials prices and how they undermine supply and demand via advertising and vertical integration. Another work by this author described the growing wealth of the American private sector while public infrastructure remained impoverished and popularized the phrase "conventional wisdom." For 10 points, name this author of The New Industrial State and The Affluent Society. # This man argued that organized labor and the federal government could replace free market competition as the primary check on corporate power and that the titular concept was a "self-generating force" in one work. In another work, he argued that large companies undermine supply and demand via advertising and vertical integration and that shareholders were losing control of their companies to a (*) technostructure of managers. This author of American Capitalism: The Concept of Countervailing Power wrote that though the private sector grew rich, the social and public infrastructure remained stagnant, allowing income disparities to remain. For 10 points, identify this economist who wrote the The New Industrial State and The Affluent Society.